Hawaii and SMU Men, FAU and Oakland Women All Tied With 74 at NIC Championships

ROCHESTER, Mich, February 25. OAKLAND University’s swimming and diving teams kicked off the 2004 National Independent Conference Swimming and Diving Championships Wednesday night at the OU Aquatics Center and did so in fine fashion. The women’s team began the meet setting a new school, pool and NIC record in the 200 medley and currently stands tied for first place with 74 points while the men’s team finished in the top three in the 200 medley relay and is in fourth place with 32 points.

The Golden Grizzlies quad of Tara Berringer (Eugene, Ore.), Maria Musialczyk (Grand Rapids, Mich.), Tanya Korniyenko (Almaty, Kazakhstan) and Oksana Strelets (Kazakhstan) broke the 200 medley relay record set by Oakland’s 2003 squad by .40 seconds and set a new pool record time of 1:43.03. Florida Atlantic was next to hit the wall at 1:44.15 followed by Northern Arizona in 1:46.15.

On the men’s side it was defending champions Southern Methodist to finish in first in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:27.70. Hawaii succeeded to finish in second in a time of 1:29.02 while hosts Oakland finished in third touching at 1:29.25.

Florida Atlantic University's women's 800 free relay team of Emma Petersson, Geni Burt, Boguslawa Bedyk and Lisa Andersson set an National Independent Conference record, pool record and school record in the first night of competition at the NIC Championships hosted by Oakland University. The time of 7:22.43 broke the school record by more than six seconds and was an NCAA 'B' cut time.

Petersson, a senior from Almhult, Sweden swam the first leg of the relay and posted an individual 'B' cut time in the 200 free to get the relay off to a fast start with a time of 1:49.17.

The Mustangs won the night's first event, the 200 medley relay, with a time of 1:27.70. SMU's team of Eric Hadley, Per Nylin, Camilo Becerra and Justin Stephenson won the event ahead of Hawaii, who finished second with a time of 1:29.02 while hosts Oakland finished in third touching at 1:29.25.

The UH 800 Yard Freestyle Relay team of Peter Thew, Cheyne Bloch, Andrew Affleck, and Kurt Boehm posted a time of 6:25.95, which is a NCAA automatic qualifying standard, and shattering the UH, NIC, and pool records.